Bishop Morlino: Only what is true can ultimately be pastoral

Bishop Robert Morlino, of Madison, Wisconsin, has strongly rejected the admission to Holy Communion of the divorced and “remarried”. In an interview with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN’s The World Over he commented:

Only what is true can ultimately be pastoral and we cannot carry out something else and call it pastoral, if it doesn’t embody the truth.

He continued:

Certain doctrines are embodied in certain practices and even if you don’t change the doctrine in writing, in a written document, if you change the practice you have changed what the previous practice embodied.

He further added:

It seems to be essentially confusing to say that we are going to change the discipline, which embodies this doctrine, but we’re not going to change the doctrine. It’s almost like a mind/body split.

It is very clear from the book of Genesis, and forward, what the Lord intended marriage to be, Jesus clarifies it in the gospels of Matthew and Mark. He, Jesus, says that the one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. Those are Jesus’s words, now, how we mitigate the truth of that is beyond me.

Bishop Morlino was asked what he thought of Cardinal Burke’s statement that he would resist Pope Francis if he pursued doctrinal change. After hearing Cardinal Burke’s statement and subsequent further explanation read out Morlino responded:

I agree with that completely.

He said that he does not believe the Holy Father will attempt such a change because:

…when we are talking about marriage we are talking about the very core of society, you know, the first of all communities, if we get totally confused about that, even doctrinally in the official teaching of the Church, then I think that all is lost for society.